Wednesday, April 27, 2011

What does a peony say in French? If it's blushing pink it says, "Je suis timide." (I'm shy.) If it's pure white, then it says "Prudence, veillez sur vous." (Be careful, watch over yourself.) If it's red, then its topic of conversation surely is passion.

Vocabularyune pivoine: a peonyle langage des fleurs: the language of flowerspersonnifier: to personify

Sunday, April 24, 2011

A French Easter tradition, like grand-mère used to make: oeufs à la coque en chocolat--emptied egg shells filled with melted chocolate, cooled and hardened. These are simply peeled and eaten. Another variation is to fill the eggshell with a creamier chocolate ganache that can be eaten with a spoon, and served in a coquetier for a yummy Easter dessert.

Who brings the eggs?

In Alsace and Loraine it's the lapin de Pâques or Easter Bunny, as in Germanic and Anglo-Saxon countries, who hides chocolate and candy eggs in the garden for children to find on Easter morning. In the rest of France, however, the popular legend is that the chocolate Easter eggs fall from church bells "returning" from Rome where they had "voyaged" during the three days before Easter. In fact, during those three days, church bells in France are silenced, then on Easter Sunday burst with sound celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.

Le voyage des cloches à Rome.
Engraving by Grandville.

Vocabularyune grand-mère: a grandmotherun oeuf à la coque: a soft-boiled eggun coquetier: an eggcupune ganache:a whipped filling of chocolate and cream used in desserts such as cakes and trufflesun lapin: a rabbitles cloches d'eglise: the church bells

Expression

There is a distinction in the French language between "la Pâque" the original Jewish celebration and "les Pâques" the multi-faceted Christian celebration. Thus:

Joyeuse Pâque, i.e. Pâque without an "s" is said to wish a Jewish person a Happy Pessah, and Joyeuses Pâques with an "s" is said to wish a person of the Christian faith a Happy Easter. There is no difference in the pronunciation!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Cushy pads. These new gardening boots are both kicky and a quick read. By Aigle, the manufacturer which has been giving 'the French touch' to outdoor wear and gear since 1853!

Vocabularybottes en caoutchouc: rubber bootsbottes de jardinage: gardening bootsun jardin: a gardenun jardinier: a gardenerun aigle: an eagleExpressionsavoir un coeur d'artichaut: to have the heart of an artichoke, meaning to be a person who falls easily in loveavoir la patate: to have the spud (literally), meaning to be in top physical formraconter des salades: to tell of salads (literally), meaning to tell tall talesgagner du blé: to earn wheat (literally), meaning to make money; to earn doughen rang d'oignons: in a row of onions, meaning in a line; originally the 17th century expression meant to be in a place where one was not invited

Then we noticed these...

Flower boxes have come out of the closet! New bright colors are as eye-catching as the flowers coordinated to bloom in them.

My all-time favorite French expression: La culture c'est comme la confiture, moins on en a, plus on l'étale. Culture is like confiture, the less one has, the more one spreads it around. Some attribute this to French writer Françoise Sagan (1935-2004), others say that it was an anonymous slogan that appeared on graffitied walls during the May 1968 demonstrations in Paris.

Vocabularyla pensée du jour: thethought for the dayétaler: to spread out or onune brioche: brioche, a sweet yeast bread

Friday, April 22, 2011

There's a citation in French attributed to Mark Twain floating around on the Net that for the life of me I cannot find in his work to authenticate: Il y a trois choses qu'une femme est capable de réaliser avec rien: un chapeau, une salade et une scène de ménage.

Roughly translated: There are three things that only a woman is able to make out of nothing: a hat, a salad and a domestic argument.

That sounds like Mark Twain, but is it really? The Web site proffers the quotation comes from Twain's Contes Choisis, i.e., Selected Stories. I've skimmed through the book twice without finding the citation. A third and careful reading I will have to forego, having misplaced that volume. Can anyone be of help?

VOCABULARYun chapelier, -ière: hatter, hatmakerun modiste: milliner (a person who makes or sells women's hats)une salade: a lettuce, a salad; also a muddle or tangled confusionraconter des salades: to spin yarns, to tell storieségarer: to mislay (here) ; to mislead, to lead astray

Monday, April 18, 2011

An idle moment along the quais of Conflans-Ste-Honorine, the long time capital of French inland waterways. The inland port is about 24 kilometers (15 miles) downstream from Paris, at the confluence of the Oise and the Seine rivers.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Give French cats the choice between a bowl of tap water and a bowl of Evian, and they'll inevitably choose Evian. Cachemire, silk, camel hair? These cats recognize quality right away and will curl up on the best fabrics in a second. But I never dreamed they knew anything about stainless steel cookware until I discovered Pompon, a.k.a. Guy l'Eclair and sometimes called Yo-Yo, nesting in my best French Cristelmarmite.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Do you have a stringed instrument that needs a good dusting that simply playing it won't give? Try this tip.

A French architect told me about how one of his more meticulous clients kept her personnel busy dusting every nook and cranny, baseboards included, of her pied-à-terre in Paris with high quality, natural bristle artist's paintbrushes. After having rolled my eyes imagining myself dabbling over my entire apartment and its eclectic contents with post-modern strokes, it occured to me that this is the best way to clean in between the strings of musical instruments. Computer keyboards, too.

I use, however, an ordinary, but soft, virgin housepainter's brush for a wider sweep.

Vocabularyun pied-à-terre: a small apartment or house kept for occasional use, literally 'foot to earth'un pinceau: a paintbrushpoils de martre: sable bristlesun instrument à cordes: a stringed instrumentun clavier: a keyboardun ordinateur: a computer

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

April in Paris is almost synonymous with the blooming of flowering chestnuts, like these young trees in front of the administrative building of the Musée du Quai Branly, also known as the Musée des Arts Premiers. The museum is dedicated to the primitive arts and civilizations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

The vertical garden, created by botanist and researcher Patrick Blanc in 2006, has become one more must-see landmarks on Paris streets, and is practically at the feet of the Eiffel Tower. More than 15,000 plants colonize the vertical surface of the building.

Vocabulary

un marronier: a chestnut tree

Expression

En avril, ne te découvre pas d'un fil; en mai fais ce qu'il te plaît." In April, don't remove a thread (of clothing); in May do as you please. That is to say, better not count on warm weather until the month of May.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Even though I don't usually buy individually wrapped sugar, I cracked for these Eiffel Tower sugar sticks. Considering we have only one friend who takes sugar in his coffee, they may be around for a long while.

Very merchandisable. The box opens into a sugar stick distributor and the back has interesting Eiffel Tower fun facts. Can holidays be far away?

Next to the sugar sticks in the supermarket were these Béghin Say sugar cubes wrapped in minature postcard views of Paris, Versailles, Strasbourg, Nancy, Lille, Honfleur, Le Mont Saint Michel, La Rochelle, Carcassonne, Avignon, Marseille, Nice and Ajaccio. Bed and breakfast hosts will undoubtedly set out these "visit France" enticements on their morning tables.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

One of the best pick-your-own farms in France, Les Fermes de Gally, is not far from Versailles, and therefore, not that far from Paris. A real treat tiptoeing through the tulips and digging up leeks even on a drizzly Sunday in the mud.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Eye-popping power statement at your feet. A houseguest visiting from America just returned from a Parisian shoe store with a flashy men's accessory, convention-kicking colored shoelaces to re-look his shoes. One more choice to make when getting dressed: reverent or irreverent. Trés Stendhalien en rouge et noir.

Vocabularyune boutique: a shopune chaussure: a shoeun lacet: a shoelace

Sunday, April 3, 2011

My word, is that jar of apricots wearing a tutu? Be the first on your block to dress up your preserves with a round of tulle netting and gold elastic ribbon like these French cherries, prunes and apricots soaked in wine. A ballet on the shelves of the épicerie of Les Fermes de Gally, near Versailles.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Crybaby, my Franco-American hybrid kids' pet fan-tailed goldfish must have been on my mind when I went to the chocolate shop.

One more slip of the tongue, this time on the funnest day of the year in most places in the world, April 1. In France the April's Fool prank is called a poisson d'avril, literally fish of April. The most common gag here is for school children to stick a cut-out paper fish on the back of a teacher or classmate, then giggle about it.

It's a big day for the chocolatier, too, who makes and sells ribbon-clad chocolate poissons d'avril, usually filled with smaller chocolate fish or fritures. Wanting to buy a chocolate fish on a first of April at our town's chocolatier, I inadvertantly asked the salesgirl for a poisson rouge (goldfish). It was not until after she looked at all of the chocolate poissons d'avril on display, then say that she didn't have a poisson rouge, that both of us realized that I had just pulled her leg.

All of these poissons d'avril were swimming around Aux Colonnes, a chocolatier in Versailles.